TWO biggest problems I feel humanity has

WALL STREET TECHNOLOGY AS AN EXAMPLE

I saw these problems on much lower levels before I started to wake up,. It is amazing to notice how the same problems appearing at the lowest, personal levels then reflect, almost identically, all the way up the ladder to the highest levels of country, continent and planet.

The main place I saw issues like this were in the software systems on Wall Street. I’ve helped develop and manage many software projects throughout the top Wall Street firms in my almost 10 years of corporate experience. The recurring issues I observed in the software development life cycle of these financial applications are akin to the recurring issues we see on this planet.

The following scenario is a typical ( not all! ) scenario on Wall Street:

Many financial applications were developed years ago when technology was far less advanced and the internet was in its infancy stages. The hardware foundations, or architectures, of these applications were made with technologies that quickly became outdated. The software foundations, or software architectures, were not planned properly because of lack of knowledge or too quick a time to market. These older applications served their purpose but became obsolete rather quickly given the growth of technology, the internet and the financial marketplace.

At the core of these applications was a foundation that could not support the rampant growth taking place in the industry. Due to high levels of demand, cost, market pressures, and industry pressures coupled with short term vision, the systems were not replaced. Instead, patches were constantly applied to the systems when issues came up. The system would constantly be patched instead of scrapping the system and creating a new one with better scalability and growth potential. The logic was: system flawed -> patch it. Patch creates an issue -> patch it. New patch breaks old patch -> patch it. Patch after patch after patch after patch.

Because of this, millions of dollars had to be invested in support teams, testing teams and tools just to maintain the applications.

I looked forward in time and saw how this was a problem that would never, ever be fixed. The systems would have to eventually collapse or become too slow and then be replaced by a system that would wind up doing the same thing. Even if a new system was built, the technology would become obsolete and have to be rebuilt again. How wasteful is this? Sure, these applications are making millions of dollars a year, but its still a complete waste of money and resources.

This is ultimately why capitalism is a flawed system. The invisible hand Adam Smith speaks of has a never ending trend upward. It does not take into consideration the Earth’s limited supply of gas, oil, coal, gold and other natural resources. Ultimately, we will get to a point where supply cannot possibly meet demand and prices will soar infinitely (theoretically speaking) until another replacement is introduced to the market. By that time, much damage will have been done. We again see how wasteful the system is.

Here is a theoretical example:

Because of the increasing needs of corporations to make a profit, and due to the nature of humans to complain about something but not understand it or do anything about it, a new solution will not be introduced until we have run out of choices. Corporations will have used up natural resources from the Earth, added much pollution to the environment, and have sucked up people’s hard earned money only in order to boast immediate profits. They’ll then spend many millions developing a new system, most likely at the expense of tax payers or shareholders.

We are feeding our own suffering!